Wash. Hospital Asking for Help With Concert Patients

QUINCY -- The bill is in and the cost sent officials from Quincy Valley Medical Center looking for a way to get people who attend concerts at the Gorge Amphitheater to pay up. Or if that doesn't work, to get the Gorge Amphitheater owners to pay something to help offset the costs.

As reported in the Columbia Basin Herald July 11, the problem facing the hospital was highlighted by the Paradiso Festival during the weekend of June 27-30. The hospital's emergency room admitted 87 patients from the Gorge and treated 80 of them.

That was the biggest impact from one concert, but the hospital's emergency room routinely treats more patients than normal on concert weekends, and has to hire extra staff to do it, QVMC administrator Mehdi Merred said.

At the end of 2013 the hospital's balance sheet showed about $340,000 in bad debt incurred by patients from the concerts, Merred said. That's about 20 percent of the hospital's bad debt for 2013, Merred said. (The hospital's total bad debt for 2013 was about $1.765 million, he said.)

To help pay some of those costs hospital officials are asking Live Nation, the Gorge Amphitheater owner, to add a $1 fee to tickets sold for all Gorge events. Merred said he knows many people attending the concerts won't have insurance, and that Live Nation organizers work to keep substances outside the concert grounds. But at the same time, concertgoers are ending up in the emergency ward and hospital district patrons are being forced to assume the bad debt, Merred said.

Live Nation owners have agreements with Grant County to be able to operate, and Merred said those agreements mean the hospital's requests can be up for negotiation. But Grant County Commissioner Cindy Carter said the county's attorneys have told county officials that can't happen. Third parties can't be part of the agreement, according to the attorneys, Carter said.

The company issued a statement through public relations spokesperson Jacqueline Peterson. "We're reviewing the situation and the demands of the hospital, but we have no comment at this time," she said.

"We are hoping they will work it out and address the issues," Carter said. Carter's commissioner district includes Quincy.

The Gorge amphitheater is in the hospital district, and district officials could de-annex the property, which would mean patients could be sent to other hospitals in the area, she said.

Merred said the hospital will continue to try and find a solution. "We're going to keep pushing the issue," he said.

Copyright 2014 - Columbia Basin Herald, Moses Lake, Wash.